Lawyer: officer at Guantánamo threatened me

A British lawyer who represents detainees at Guantánamo Bay yesterday claimed he was threatened with internment at the notorious camp by a US military officer.

Clive Stafford-Smith told the Guardian that the US military claimed he had incited inmates to commit suicide and go on hunger strike. Mr Stafford-Smith says the US has been repeatedly interrogating one of his clients to try to get him to implicate him in three suicides. Mr Stafford-Smith has made at least eight visits to the camp, situated on Cuban land occupied by the US, to consult with several detainees he represents.

He said the alleged intimidation reached a peak last summer during a mass hunger strike. In August 2005, he said, "a military lawyer took me into a cell and said it would be for me, as he alleged I was behind the hunger strike. They have been making stuff up about the clients and now they are making it up about me."

A revolt among prisoners led to three killing themselves this summer, which human rights groups described as an act of desperation. But Rear Admiral Harry Harris, commander of the detention facilities, described the suicides as an act of "asymmetric warfare" designed to tarnish America's image.

Mr Stafford-Smith vowed to return to the base: "I'm planning to go back to Guantánamo. I can't stop representing my clients based on these threats."